Misinformation and Knowledge Gaps Undermine Vaccine Protection: Kristina Crothers, MD

Although employed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Crothers is not representing the VA, and the views expressed are her own.

Combination vaccines offer a logical path to improved adherence and simplified scheduling for respiratory illnesses, explained Kristina Crothers, MD, professor of medicine and pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at the University of Washington. However, this strategy requires confirmation through safety and immunogenicity studies.

She also noted that the largest systemic barriers to vaccine uptake include knowledge gaps among both patients and providers about new recommendations, as well as the pervasive damage caused by misinformation linking vaccines to adverse outcomes.

Transcript was lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

With multiple respiratory viruses circulating seasonally, what is your perspective on the future of combination vaccines or co-administration strategies to simplify the vaccination schedule and boost adherence?

Yeah, definitely, I think if we can combine vaccines, it seems logical that it would definitely improve adherence. I think we need to know that it's safe, though, and so I know ongoing studies are addressing those questions to see, does it increase the risk of side effects and is the immunogenicity going to be as the same and as durable if we're administering sort of multiple vaccines at the same time.

What are the largest system-level barriers that hinder optimal vaccine uptake for respiratory infections?

That's a good question, and I think there's sort of several layers to that. One is knowledge. There may be people aren't aware of vaccines that are available for RSV [respiratory syncytial virus]—being a newer vaccine, for example—and maybe not knowing that there's updated COVID-19 vaccines that are different from the ones that they received before, and knowing that there's changes in recommendations, like for pneumococcal vaccine lowering the age to age 50. One [barrier] is knowledge, and that could be both in providers and in patients. That's one thing.

Then another [barrier] is misinformation—having statements out there about vaccines being linked with adverse outcomes that are not borne up by evidence. I think that we really need to address those concerns and do a better job at dispelling some of the misinformation that's out there.